BENGALURU: This is one train we've been waiting for too long. Namma Metro, which was planned in 2002-03 and started in 2006, is nowhere near completion. That's more than 10 years of waiting -and a recent report estimates that we'll still be waiting for it 17 years hence.In the meantime, the cost of the project has more than doubled from Rs 6,000 crore to Rs 13,800 crore. After many a delay , Phase 1 of the project, covering 42km, was to have been opened this year but the completion date has now been pushed to the first quarter of 2016. A recent survey by travel startup railyatri.in, which studied the progress of work, concluded that it will take Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) till 2032 to complete both phases and provide the city with a 114km network.

The survey found that Bengaluru Metro constructed 1.5km of network a year, while Delhi Metro built 8km per year in the first phase. When former PM Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stone for Namma Metro in June 2006, the first line, Byappanahalli-MG Road, was to be operational by 2009 and the first phase by 2011. But, the first line was only commissioned in October 2011, and the rest of Phase 1 is still being built.

Phase I will cover 42km, with the east-west and northsouth lines intersecting at Majestic. In February , BMRC said the entire network would be ready by March 2016, and the 6km west line between Magadi Road and Mysuru Road would be completed by June 2015. The cost of the Metro, meanwhile, continues to rise.The cost of Phase 1 was pegged at Rs 6,000 crore in the detailed project report done in 2002-03. It was revised to Rs 11,609 crore in 2011. By January 2014, the cost had escalated to Rs13,800 crore.

Phase 2 was approved in February 2013, and the detailed project report estimated that work would be finished by 2017-18. It is estimated to cost Rs 26,405 crore.BMRC started work and awarding compensation for land acquired recently . As a result of the delay , the project cost has risen by Rs 4,000 crore.

The state government is planning to offset the cost by levying cess on properties that will come up within 500m of the Metro corridor and use 60% of this revenue to fund construction. However, the real estate lobby has gone to court.

“We are not going to delay the start of services post March 2016. Our challenge is tunnelling. Nowhere in the world have tunnel boring machines broken down as in case of Bengaluru Metro. The soil is unpredictable. On good days, we are able to lay 15 rings; on some days, progress is zero. Once the remaining half km of the northsouth tunnel is completed, we can schedule the rest of the work and open the line at the earliest,“ said U A Vasanth Rao, spokesperson and general manager (finance), BMRC.

The delay in construction and commissioning of the Metro has undermined the main objective of reducing congestion on the road.